Around the World in 717 Days

CHANDLER, ARIZONA – When we left the United States in November of 2011 we were in search of an adventure. We didn’t intend on traveling for any finite period of time. There was no big list of countries that we planned to visit, and we definitely didn’t intend to circumnavigate the world. Every day we made decisions regarding which direction to head or where to spend the next week or month and every day we were surprised by what laid around the corner. The constant discovery and unending challenges and lessons are what made our trip worth continuing. Combined, they are why our journey lasted much longer than either of us (or our family and friends, for that matter) imagined.

Starting with Latin America, we traveled by land between Mexico and Read the rest of this entry »

Adventures in The Balkans: Part II

ISTANBUL, TURKEY – Before departing Bosnia and Herzegovina I realized that my passport was quickly running out of free space for new stamps. After spending a bit of time researching and communicating with Theresa back in Turkey, we decided to book an appointment at the American embassy in Istanbul in order to have more pages inserted into both of our booklets. This process is advertised as taking up to two weeks, so I created an itinerary for the last half of my Balkans trip that would ensure I arrived in Istanbul with sufficient time. My new plan was to visit one destination in each of the five countries left on my list: Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Excited to start the last half of my trip, I jumped on the next bus headed towards the Dalmatian Coast.

Dubrovnik, Croatia:

Over the years I had heard many times of Dubrovnik’s charm. My father, for example, Read the rest of this entry »